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I always love seeing young and interesting companies adopt the Business Model Canvas. So I was very happy when renowned Dutch music upstart SellaBand used the Canvas to visualize their Business Model. They're a typical example of the business model generation. They use the image below to explain their innovative model to investors and employees. The image is one of the many illustrations in the "Business Model Generation" book by the way.

Sellaband provides an alternative to the traditional music industry. It is a platform that empowers artists to record their next album, funded by their fans.

Read more about the SellaBand business model example and how it came to live in Patrick van der Pijl's blogpost. Patrick worked with strategy consultant Ouke Arts, strategy visualizers JAM, and Sellaband co-founder Johan Vosmeijer on the case.

If you're interested in the link between business models and visualization: JAM has done a lot of the visual thinking in "Business Model Generation"!

Many of you have seen my presentation "business models matter", which shows how the music industry has been slow to react to a changing industry landscape.

Here a video explanation by Mike Masnick from Techdirt of how an artist, Trent Raznor, is re-inventing business models for the music industry. Most interestingly: he shows how FREE can be the basis for earning substantial revenues...

What can other industries learn from this? I have a pretty clear idea: Business Model Innovation is possible!

This week I was in Madrid to work together with XPLANE, the leading company when it comes to visual thinking in strategy & business. XPLANE will help me with the visuals for some examples and processes in my upcoming book on business model innovation.

Together with Pablo Ramirez of XPLANE we worked on several things, including the business model of the Apple iPod. Here is a first sketch - open for your input & feedback...

Don't hesitate with comments & feedback. This is most certainly one of the examples we will use in the book. At every workshop & event I do, the Apple iPod comes up because of its influence on the music industry.

In today's blogpost I'm sharing a couple of reflections on long tail business models. It is be part of the upcoming book in a section that illustrates some popular management theories & concepts through the business model canvas.